Is Silicon Valley Obsessed With “Reinventing” Things That Already Exist? Yes. Should They Stop? No.

One of the recent criticisms of the Silicon Valley zeitgeist of “innovation” and “disruption” is that companies are merely creating digital replicas of things that already exist. Airbnb’s purpose-built apartments sound a lot like hotels. Lyft’s new Shuttle service sounds a lot like a bus. Even Blue Apron’s meal kits sound a lot like fancy hamburger helper.

Cue the eye-rolling now …

Is this the best thing brilliant, driven entrepreneurs can create? Aren’t there more important things to do than solving problems that already have solutions?

While I fully agree with the premise of this criticism — technology should solve important, huge problems — I wholeheartedly disagree with its conclusion.

Startups using technology to redesign “solved” problems aren’t a frivolous endeavor. Starting a company with digital-first DNA gives startups a potential to change the way massive numbers of people live their lives every day. And that type of impact is anything but frivolous.

Let me explain.

Why Digital-First Businesses Will Win

It used to be that there was a division between online and offline worlds — and technology-fueled innovation was relegated to one of them.

Now these two worlds are becoming seamlessly intertwined. This new world gives companies with digital-first DNA a competitive advantage.

The core DNA and principals of how digital-first businesses operate are entirely different, and as a result, so is the end-user experience. Technology-enabled startups unencumbered by legacy operations can recreate consumer offerings that seamlessly meld the digital components of the experience into the physical one, rather than approaching it as a tack-on afterthought.

Take Airbnb’s “hotel,” for instance. I can imagine a seamless arrival process in which there is no check-in required at all — entering the building through a NFC-enabled feature on my phone and then proceeding directly to my room with a similar keyless entry. With a dedicated hotel app on my phone, I could turn on and control the TV, change the lighting and shades, and even the climate control. Plus, an Alexa-enabled device could act as a voice guide for all of the facility’s amenities and traditional human concierge duties.

I know what you’re thinking: Can’t Marriott do all of this today? Yes, but they haven’t — because of a legacy franchise system and organizational technology inertia.

Unlike Marriott, Airbnb can build an experience that completely integrates technology from the start, rather than treating it as a grafted-on afterthought.

Digital-First Businesses Are Coming for Every Industry

Digital-first businesses aren’t just dominating the travel industry. You can see their growth and impact when examining the act of commerce itself.

No longer are brick-and-mortar and ecommerce businesses distinct entities — omni-channel selling is now the end-state for any retailer. Just look at Amazon’s physical bookstores and acquisition of Whole Foods, or legacy retailers’ recent acquisitions of digital-first brands like Chewy, Jet, and Dollar Shave Club.

At NextView, we think digital-first businesses are going to extend into numerous facets of our daily lives, even in historically low-tech categories, such as food.

For example, our investment in MealPal doesn’t change the fact that people are walking to nearby restaurants to pick up lunch during the workweek. But it does enable a fundamentally different experience for consumers to skip the line and pay jaw-dropping lower prices for the same exact meal.

Should Technology Transform Everything?

Of course, the “exact replicas critique” does have some merit, as there are ultimately limitations about how far technology-first redesigns can be extended. The Juicero debacle is the perfect example— juice really is just crushed fruit, regardless of whether a robot or a human does it.

However, in entrepreneurs’ pursuit of reimagining how our daily lives can be shaped by connected tech, some trees will be planted that just won’t yield any … well … fruit.

Next time folks roll their eyes at the “innovations” coming out of startup hubs like Silicon Valley, New York, and Boston, consider that many of these founders and companies are looking to better our everyday lives. And they might just be successful at it.

A tech-first redesign has the potential to meaningfully improve the daily experiences for millions of people. And that is a very worthy pursuit.